Steve Murphy: Costs, not controls, drive crisis in education

The problems with education, Hann claims, stem from two places: the teacher's union and money-grubbing zealots who want to take money from taxpayers and throw it down the drain. The simple solution to this mayhem, he claims, is a voucher system that will design segregated mini-academies for the rich and turn our public schools into deteriorating shells for the underprivileged. This is not the Minnesota education system we need or want.

Minnesota schools have been beleaguered the past decade by heavy-handed yet under-funded federal mandates, state funding cuts, and the same soaring health-care costs that have plagued businesses and individuals. It's unfair to say that schools are in dire straits because of unions when the federal government provides only 15 percent, not the 40 percent, of mandated special education costs it promised to pay, and cuts schools at the knees with under-funded and onerous No Child Left Behind requirements. The other shoe finally dropped in 2003, when state school funding was cut by $185 million, forcing students to help fill the gaping budget hole.

According to Hann, all that's necessary to improve education is to pay teachers less and bust their union. Anyone looking closely at why districts were asking for money would realize it wasn't about salaries, it was about the kids. In Anoka, voters were asked to help lower class sizes, cut exorbitant fees and restore busing routes so kids could get to school safely. In Bloomington, voters were asked to preserve an exceptional music program. In Frazee-Vergas, voters were simply asked to keep the district from extinction. It's too easy to blame the teachers and the union. It doesn't require that we face the real issues, work together and find solid solutions.

The debate is not about control, as Hann's article suggests, but rather quality education that will meet the needs of all our children, not only those who live in districts lucky enough to pass referendums every few years. We do need a reasoned, civilized debate about how we should fund our schools and ensure that our students remain the best and brightest in the nation. Minnesota has always been a leader in educational quality, and our students continue to do well --again this year, our kids had the highest average ACT scores in the nation.

But there's much more we need to do, like close the achievement gap, design high schools that will prepare our kids for the rigors of the 21st century, and provide quality preschool programs for all kids. We'll never succeed if we keep relying on a patchwork funding system that forces schools to beg for money for the educational basics. This approach undermines the goals laid out in our state Constitution and won't provide a sustainable funding mechanism for quality schools.

We absolutely don't need a funding system tainted by smelly politics that bring in out-of-state anti-education groups to distort facts and imply that taxpayer dollars will be used to pay education costs for "those kids" who are "different." This is the worst political game we can play and teaches our children to be prejudiced and cynical. We can't continue to operate this way.

We do have some opportunities for change. Rep. Mindy Greiling and Sen. Terri Bonoff are cochairing a House/Senate School Finance Reform Task force. This bipartisan group will debate and examine school funding and report to the Legislature next year. Sen. Kathy Saltzman is also gathering a group of legislators to examine the results of the most recent election to discuss how we can better meet the needs of our students. I applaud these legislators for their diligence and positive hard work on education issues.

Above all, remember, our goal is to provide the best education for our children. Educational investments have paid big dividends for Minnesota. An ancient Chinese saying is as pertinent now as it was centuries ago: "When planning for a year, plant corn. When planning for a decade, plant trees. When planning for life, train and educate people."

Steve Murphy, DFL-Red Wing, is a member of the Minnesota Senate.